ESTRUCTURAS INDUSTRIALES

Figure 1.3 Theoretical Framework

The present study is designed based on a number of fundamental theories, a teaching and learning strategy, and a teaching approach, which share some relations between them including fundamental values for teaching and learning writing. The main theory for planning writing is shaped by the cognitive process theory of writing. Ausubel‟s meaningful learning theory is a fundamental theory for the strategy of concept mapping (CM) whereas the cognitive learning theory and the theory of second language acquisition serve as essential theories for the teaching approach of the content-based instruction (CBI). The CBI requires a guideline from

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the schema theory in helping students planning their argumentative writing. Both CM and the CBI need to be encouraged with critical thinking training to produce effective outcomes in students‟ writing and critical thinking skills.

The main theory is the cognitive processes theory of writing. This theory emphasizes on composing as clarified by Flower and Hayes (1981): the process of writing is hierarchical, and planning is one of the crucial stages in the writing process. In this study, planning involves a number of sub-processes: the skill of generating ideas which includes „retrieving relevant information from long-term memory‟, and the sub-process of organizing tasks that will help the writers make meaningful structures of their ideas. The sub-process of organization enables the writer to group ideas and form new concepts for subordinate ideas. This develops a current topic towards a rhetorical decision and plans for reaching the audiences.

The planning process in this study refers to the application of an integration in a teaching and learning strategy, concept mapping, and an explicit teaching approach of English language teaching and the content-based instruction. Concept mapping (CM) is clarified as a graphical tool to organize and represent knowledge; it is expanded according to Ausubel‟s meaningful learning theory (Novak & Cañas, 2006, 2007), which perceives knowledge as a representing and incorporating system. The ideas of this representing knowledge are connected to each other in an arranged fashion, and the human mind applies logical rules to organize information into respective categories (Ivie, 1998).

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However, based on the cognitive process theory of writing, the quality of individual retrieving information depends on an individual‟s English proficiency whereby some writers may produce inadequate or poor concept mapping in the planning stage. Despite its enormous effectiveness, concept mapping, therefore, is suggested to support other skills in order to strengthen its utilization in writing classes. In this study, the teacher provides some activities that can support the students‟ accurate use of language (Ojima, 2004), and the learners are suggested to search relevant written texts which are good sources for their writing tasks as a way to create an effective concept mapping (Mahnam & Nejadansari, 2012). This study, therefore, applies the content-based instruction to help learners develop their language skills for academic use as well as provides them with access to new concepts through meaningful content (Crandall, 1999 cited in Heo, 2006).

As a goal-setting, which is a major aspect of the planning process (Flower & Hayes, 1981), this study emphasizes on argumentative writing. The argumentative schema that is guided by the schema theory, thus, is the main source to be analyzed by the learners. The learners are encouraged to analyze the argumentative texts in order to realize the way of generating and organizing ideas or information to plan their writing. According to the schema theory, knowledge in stories and events is reconstructed in the human mind for further recall (Nassaji, 2007) and the term „schema‟ refers to a dynamic organization of previous reactions, or experiences, which must always be assumed to be operating in any well-adapted natural reaction (Bartlett (1932). Furthermore, schema serves as a reference stock up from which a person can retrieve related knowledge that exists in human‟s memory and into which new information is assimilated. When encouraging a topic in reading or listening, the

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reader activates the schema for that topic and makes use of it to anticipate, infer, and make different kinds of judgments and decisions about it.

In second language reading, in addition, when individuals obtain knowledge, they attempt to fit that knowledge into some structure in memory that helps them make sense of that knowledge (Ajideh, 2006). There are two different types of the schema theory: content schemata and formal schemata. This study focuses on formal schemata that are the rhetorical structure of language and person‟s knowledge of a particular genre structure (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). In some recent studies, it is found that the schema theory is useful for teaching second language writing (Xia, 2008). Because the schemata are dynamic and can be developed all the time based on our experiences, it is thus a very appropriate tool for teachers to consider when teaching writing. In addition, it focuses on how the structures of thoughts are incorporated into the structure of language in both speaking and writing; it provides us with a set of concepts and terminology which can be used to present and discuss writing productively, and emphasizes on the prior knowledge in comprehension.

This schema theory also has some relationship with the cognitive learning theory and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, whereby the CBI is derived from it. The cognitive learning theory conceives that students‟ progress

through a series of three stages in the process of acquiring literacy skills: the

cognitive, the associative, and the autonomous‟. According to Krashen‟s model, people only acquire second languages when they obtain comprehensible input (Du, X., 2009). Krashen‟s model offers a theoretical foundation for the CBI that provides students‟ contextualized language curricula built around meaningful and

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comprehensible input through which not only language but information is required

(Krashen, 1982). Krashen also mentioned that there are four affective factors that can

influence the learners‟ SLA: motivation, attitude, anxiety, and self-confidence. These are affective filters which can be utilized in second language teaching (Du, X., 2009).

In addition, since writing is claimed as a process of both critical thinking and a product that communicates the results of critical thinking (Bean, 2011), this study encourages students to acquire the critical thinking ability, supported byToulmin‟s model, to strengthen their writing performance and critical thinking skills. According to Toulmin‟s model, the basic conception of argument, the argument has several important elements: 1) a claim based on evidence of some sort, 2) a warrant that explains how the evidence supports the claim, 3) backing that supports the warrants, and 4) qualifications and rebuttals or counter arguments that refute competing claims. This study tried to help learners to acquire the critical thinking skills based on this basic conception of argument, so they can finally produce their concept maps using some effective filters of Krashen‟s model which serves the CBI. Therefore, through utilizing the strategy of CM-CBI, it is assumed that the students can improve their writing performance and abilities in critical thinking.